Safe Worker Award

SGEU proudly congratulates member Paul Price, a Facility Youth Worker at the North Battleford Youth Centre, on being named one of two finalists for WorkSafe Saskatchewan’s 2016 Safe Worker Award.

Paul, a longtime co-chair of his OH&S committee, was nominated by a co-worker in recognition of his ongoing work to improve safety conditions at the Centre.

In an 18-year career in the Saskatchewan youth corrections system, Paul has always seen workplace safety as something that can be continuously improved.

“The standards are always minimum standards,” says Paul. “I’m always trying to better them, trying to improve them.”

Improving safety “is just kind of an everyday thing,” he adds with a chuckle. “And it goes on and on for years.”

Paul stresses the importance of working collaboratively and cooperatively to make workplace improvements, and says that small changes can make a big difference.

Safety standards “ultimately change people’s lives,” he says. “And if you work in a really unsafe environment, you can lose your life very quickly. So just by being there all the time, and kind of pushing things along, you are actually improving everyone’s life around you.”

On this National Day of Mourning for workers killed and injured on the job, let’s all resolve to follow Paul’s example, and strive to continuously improve safety in our workplaces.

As Paul puts it: “Just trying to make a difference every day, for yourself and for the people around you – that’s the key to everybody going home at the end of every day.”